Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)

Does the Minister have a view on what the CRU said about mandating data centres to have a supply of electricity for themselves? Access to public infrastructure and our natural resources has been prioritised for data centres. However, the energy regulator in the Netherlands has the power to prioritise projects that identify social goals which can be prioritised for connection to the energy grid. That does not seem to be the case here. Does the Minister have an opinion on that? He must examine these measures and their applicability here. Ordinary workers and farmers cannot continue to shoulder a disproportionate burden by paying for the grid through network charges - we spoke earlier about the unfairness of how these are distributed - when data centres are being given the green light to gobble up all the new capacity that has become available in recent years. In other jurisdictions, these centres pay a larger amount towards essential infrastructure. The exact same should happen here. If the Government is serious about prioritising the construction of new housing, it must follow this path.

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